Chapitre 27: 27. Another Tragic Demise?! First Cliff Hanger?!

In a forest located north of Xia Amber City, a party of seventeen players was walking through the trees.

"Xiao Man, have you checked the authentication of the player Chaos's post?" A player of around twenty-seven years of age asked the black-haired young woman beside him. He seems to be the leader of the party according to the party member's expression of admiration, reverence, etc. directed toward him.

"Yes, Young Master. The information on the post has been verified by numerous guilds already. I also had one of our guild members use the E rank class token we got from the Level-15-B monster." Xiao Man replied respectfully from the side.

"Hmm... Any other information?" Long Tian asked again after a few seconds.

"Yes, Young Master. E and D rank class tokens are sold in Cycadlike Treasure Chamber in limited quantity daily at the price of 10 and 100 Gold Coins respectively. One thousand E rank and one hundred D rank class token, to be specific.

"But, the tokens are blank. You will only get to know the specifics of the token after buying it. It depends on luck to obtain the desired class token.

"The only known C rank class token are the four which are being auctioned by an anonymous player. Their prices have already gone past 3500 Gold Coins. Maybe some had already used C rank or above class tokens to complete their Class Advancement.

"No one would sell such tokens after reading Chaos's post. Fortunately, one cannot cancel the item auction one hour after it is put on sale. Otherwise, I think that anonymous player would have taken back those tokens."

Xiao Man stopped speaking at this point as she got a message notification. She checked the message and frowned slightly.

"Any news of concern?" Long Tian asked calmly upon seeing her expression.

Xiao Man nodded and replied, "Yes, Young Master. There is a rumor that every player can go through a Class Advancement Ceremony five times before level 100. The first time it is free. Then every subsequent advancement requires 1000 Gold Coins."

"Hmm... How did the rumor come to be?" Long Tian asked after thinking for a few seconds.

Xiao Man: "Apparently a player who already completed Class Advancement Ceremony without any token bought ten E grade token and then again went for Class Advancement.

"He was seen kicked out of the Ranger Building for kicking up a ruckus about the required 1000 Gold Coins for the second advancement in the Moulton City. Before anyone could ask him anything, he logged out. Either due to frustration or forced to log out after he was in the game for 16 hours straight.

"The players present inside the Ranger Building at that time heard him screaming something like 'Only 5 chances before level 100?!', 'I have to pay 1000 Gold Coins for the second time?!', etc."

"Hmm... Confirm the information and inform me fast. If it is true we would have to amass a huge amount of Gold Coins then. The CEE had not opened the real-life currency exchange yet... Buy Gold Coins from the average player base. Pay 50 ⨄⨭ for 1 Gold Coin." Long Tian gave a series of orders.

Xiao Man was shocked at the price her Young Master announced. Right now, other guilds were only offering 5 ⨄⨭ for 1 Gold Coin. Though the conversion rate will now change due to the class tokens, it won't jump 10 times directly.

But, although shocked, Xiao Man did what she was ordered. She didn't question her Young Master's order. After all, he was one of the heirs of the guild S-Class 'Heritage Of Dragons'.

To become an heir of the prestigious S-Class guild 'Heritage Of Dragons', one should have an extremely high background and outstanding personal capabilities.

Long Tian was considered an extraordinary genius with excellent leadership qualities. As for background? Long Tian is the third son of the Vice-Guild Master of 'Heritage Of Dragons'.

~~~~~

Similar steps were taken by almost every top guild that joined the game. The unofficial selling price of Gold Coins was rising very fast.

Mainstream average players also were not selling their Coins. They used it to buy tokens from Cycadlike Treasure Chamber and if it's useful to them good. If it isn't, then they put it on auction for a higher price according to the token's popularity.

~~~~~

Meanwhile, Sunny reached near the border of the inner zone of the Antican territory. As far as he can see, only mountains and lush green valleys could be seen.

He checked the remaining duration of the [Sand Essence Token]. There were still twenty-four minutes remaining. He waited and during that time checked the latest incidents on VR Forum.

'Pretty Chaotic. Fortunately, no one knows that the four tokens are put on auction by me. Or else my account would be flooding again with friend requests, threats, private deals, etc. Although it pains me spend 20,000 ⨄⨭ for VR Forum's highest tier premium, the service provided by Aurora and the peace deserves that price.' Sunny thought to himself.

A few minutes later, the sandy smell on him was beginning to disperse. Sunny entered the inner zone and chugged down a vial of [Stealth Potion] and went deeper into the inner zone towards the north-west direction. He had already replenished his stock of [Stealth Potion] back to 10 vials.

Sunny knows that his target colony lives near the border of the inner zone in this direction. But, the exact location wasn't disclosed in any post he read about this colony.

The only lead Sunny has now is that this particular colony's descendants should have a pattern on their steel-like silver mandibles. A black flame pattern to be exact.

Sunny roamed the north-eastern part of the inner zone. Every time he came across a patrol team or a colony he hid in trees, boulders, cracks in the mountains, etc., and observed them from afar.

He searched for nearly 4 hours before he found a patrol team of nine Anticans with a black flame pattern on their mandibles.

After confirming the pattern was the exact one he was looking for from his memories, he followed them. He kept a distance of at least seventy-five meters from the Antican patrol team.

The patrol team walked around for forty-seven minutes before reaching their colony.

Sunny stayed nearly 125 meters away from the colony and checked all the Anticans coming out of the colony that he was able to see. All of them had the black flame pattern on their mandibles.

After that, he waited for a lone Antican to come out of the colony. Whenever a lone Antican came out, he would stealthily go fifty meters near it and check out its black flame pattern.

If the pattern had more than three branches, then the grade of that particular should be above grade C. After waiting for 2 hours, only six Anticans left the colony. And all of them had a black flame pattern with more than three patterns.

Only after another 1 hour did he find an Antican which had the black flame pattern with just three branches. This one was going in the north direction.

Sunny followed him after flanking the colony from the east side.

When the Antican was approximately 300 meters away from the colony and he was sure that there wasn't any other Antican nearby, only then did Sunny choose to attack.

He sprinted towards it and upon reaching thirty meters away, he took out his wand and aimed a *Mana Chain* around its neck.

The Antican was startled due to the sudden ambush and didn't manage to react before the chain bound around its neck tightly. Sunny then tugged hard on the chain dragging the Antican towards himself.

He took out the [Augmented Serpent Fang] from his inventory and shoved it inside the Antican mouth with only its handle outside.

Although he wouldn't get any of the weapon's bonus effect, it is sharp enough to pierce through the inner parts of a C grade level 25 Antican.

The Antican immediately lost its ability to scream or screech? Sunny released the hold of *Mana Chain* on it and back away slightly.

The Antican began thrashing around violently and clawing at the fanged dagger. It somehow removed the dagger from its mouth and tried to stand up.

But, before it could do so, a blue bolt hit it on its gaping wound in the mouth.

Sunny flanked to the Antican's front side when it was removing the fanged dagger with its claws.

The wound expanded and yellow blood began oozing out like a broken dam. The Antican struggled to turn back towards the colony, but Sunny bound its leg with another *Mana Chain*.

It fell down face first which further aggrieved its mouth wound.

Sunny came near it and molded the mana condensed chain into thin a katana. He then began to slash at its neck joints from the gap of its exoskeleton.

The Antican struggles to save its life moving aside, trying to stand up, sometimes trying to slash at Sunny with its sickle-shaped hands, etc.

But, Sunny prevented all of it and kept gnawing at its health. In 1 min and 47 secs, the Antican was dead. Sunny took out a token from his inventory and soaked it in the Antican blood.

He then held the token on his chest and crushed it. The corpse started disappearing and Sunny was shrouded in white motes of light.

Before he was completely enveloped in light, he heard steps coming near him. Around sixty meters away.

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@The_Crab Thank You Very Much for the precious <GOLDEN TICKETS>×2.